Protecting your data

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Protecting your data

It is important to protect your Centre College data.  You may have data that contains Personable Identifiable Information (PII).  This type of data should never be stored in your email, cloud storage, on your desktop, Qualtrics, etc.  Storing PII in email increases the risk of unauthorized access and data breaches resulting from devices being compromised or inadvertently sharing or sending emails.  

Centre's data protection policies require that sensitive information be stored and managed in specific ways. Email systems often do not meet these stringent requirements, leading to potential legal and financial repercussions.

Centre College policies which focus on data include:

• Data Governance Policy

• Record Retention and Destruction Policy

• ITS Backup Policy

• Records Retention Schedule

Note: All of these policies are located on CentreNet and you must be logged into CentreNet before you can view the policies.

Data purge

As part of our annual data purge, we ask employees to search their email inbox, folders, and local machine files for instances of Personally Identifiable Information (PII) or financial data. This would also include systems the college provides such as Google Docs, Qualtrics Surveys, etc.  PII includes social security numbers, birth dates, personal phone numbers, and other identifying details. Financial data includes credit card information, bank account details, and any other financial records.

• Search Your Email Folders and Computer Files: Use keywords such as “SSN,” “social security number,” “credit card”,  “bank account”, ”W-2”, “Passport”, “1040”, “confidential” to locate emails or documents containing sensitive information. As a reminder, this includes your personal Information.  If the information is yours (example your W-2), it needs to be removed and you can use Lockbox to send the information to your personal non-Centre email.
  
  

• Review, delete, and store appropriately.  If you find emails or documents containing PII or financial data that are no longer necessary, please delete them immediately.  If the information is required for ongoing work, ensure it is stored securely in an approved location, such as an encrypted cloud storage.
  
  

• Ensure that it is fully removed from your email and computer, by purging the deleted items folder and recycle bin.
  
  

If you have any hard copy documents with PII or financial data on them, view the various locations on campus that contain a Docubit shredding bin.  ITS can also arrange for bulk shredding if you have a substantial amount of hardcopy files.

Archives and Special Collections

As you are removing materials, physical or digital, please remember to save those that should be kept in the Centre College Archives or Special Collections.  You may contact Carrie Frey or Beth Morgan about these materials, and we will collect them for retention.  

Records of Centre College date from the College’s founding in 1819 and include photographs, official reports and publications, student newspapers, yearbooks, artifacts, and documents from academic departments and offices, including the President and Vice President for Academic Affairs. Papers of notable faculty and alumni are also collected. 

If you have any questions please contact Beth Morgan, the College Archivist.

Tips for protecting your data

• Never share your password

• Never use your Centre password for other accounts, emails, programs

• Do not try to send certain information through Outlook

  • • • Email is not an approved storage location for PII and financial information

      • If you do this, your email will not send and ITS will be notified that you are sending an email that contains PII 

      • If you reply or forward an email that contains PII (banking info, credit card, social), you will not be able to send the email and ITS will be notified

• Do not save PII information in your email, locally on your computer, Qualtrics surveys, Google docs/drive, etc.

Tools and resources for protecting your data

As a Centre College employee, the following tools and resources are available to help you protect your Centre College data.  In addition to these tools, we recommend you back-up your data on a regular basis.

• Lockbox - Lockbox is Centre’s secure email and file dropping service.  This will allow you to send confidential or sensitive information via encrypted email or send and receive secure files to individuals outside of the college.
  
  

• BitLocker - BitLocker is a Windows security feature that encrypts everything on your Windows device.  This encryption protects your data in case of data theft, or if your device is ever lost, stolen or inactive.
  
  

• FileVault - FileVault is a Mac security feature that encrypts everything on your Mac device.   This encryption protects your data in case of data theft, or if your device is ever lost, stolen or inactive.
  
  

• Cryptomator - Cryptomator is a free software program that allows you to encrypt your files and folders located in the cloud. At Centre, you can use Cryptomator to encrypt a folder within OneDrive.  Before you get started, please review the Advice before you begin and What you should know sections.